Archive for the ‘London’ CategoryV Rating: Super V Continuing our quest for the best vegetarian restaurants overseas, Andy, J-Lo and I decided to try Manna. The polite, upper middle class suburb of Primrose Hill in London’s North is a unlikely place to find England’s oldest vegetarian restaurant. However, there was a serendipitous aspect to our trip.
A stint working in the kitchen of a London pub nigh on ten years ago confirmed my move to vegetarianism (there was nothing wrong the pub - it was just the first time I’d had to pull apart a full cooked chicken, limb by limb, ligament by tearing ligament….urgh). That pub, the Magdala Tavern, is very close to Manna in Hampstead Heath so we paid a short nostalgic trip there before heading to Manna for a sumptous vegetarian feast.
Inside, Manna reminded me of a modern, tasteful country house, the kind of place whose effortless chic makes Home and Garden editors swoon. Despite its elegance, the friendly staff immediately impressed us with their hospitality and down-to-earth attitude. Manna’s menu draws its inspiration from the globe with the entrees showing Japanese, French, Moroccan and Italian influences. I quickly opted for the caramelised pear and goats cheese galette, which turned out to be my favourite dish of the night. The creamy tart goats cheese was a great foil for the not too sweet carmelised pear with cinnamon, and are set off nicely by the delicate pastry base.
For mains, I had the beautifully presented parmesan and nettle polpetta. These were egg-shaped, fried herbed cheese croquettes in a tomato and basil sauce served with sauteed greens and wild garlic pesto. The cheese gave the polpettes a soft, gooey consistency, and had a lovely homey feel when matched with the tomato sauce, although the taste of the nettle was too subtle for me to make out.
Restoring some cosmic dinner karma, J-LO picked the winner for main. Her organic puy lentil torte may sound vaguely like 1970s vegetarian food, but don’t be put off. The taste was sensational. It was a lentil, herb, tofu and green bean cake served with green lemon sauce, tomato and olive salsa, rosemary roast potatoes, red wine reduction and rocket. Two courses of hearty food later we were stuffed. However, our host insisted that Manna was famous for its puddings, and we couldn’t we leave without trying the special dessert of the night, a raspberry mascarpone and and white chocolate cheesecake served with ice cream. Our arms were not long in the twisting, and it turned out to be a wise call. Although the white chocolate base was sweet, the raspberry sauce was not and together they made a great combination. With a delicious, gourmet vegetarian meal in my stomach, Manna proved why ten years on I still love being vegetarian.
V Rating: VVV Day two of our trip and we were already stranded overnight, sans luggage. British Airways apologised, handed us an overnight pack, and shipped us off to the Hilton Hotel, which is connected to the airport. Normally I would have felt stupid for turning up at a Hilton restaurant in my tracksuit pants and a loose t-shirt (which bear a striking resemblance to my pjamas), but I was tired, hungry and eager to extract maximum value from a free meal. Fortunately, the airport Hotel at the Hilton has a good understanding of its clientele. The restaurant is more sizzler than bistro, with tiled floors and a buffet spread.
There were lots of vegetarian choices amongst the salad bar and hot food bain marie, and even a vegetarian section on the a la carte menu. The hot food selection was especially good for vegos, because there were lots of individual vegetable choices like baked potatoes, potato bake, steamed carrots, and a surprisingly tasty ratatouille. Rather than make a pretense of sophistication, the buffet was comfort food - just what you need after an eight hour trip and jetlag. The breakfast buffet the next day was also veggie-friendly, with mushrooms, hash browns, vegetarian sausages, cereals and fruit. I was disappointed that they didn’t offer soy milk, but aside from that thought the Hilton did a better than expected job of catering to vegetarians. Not a place you should go out of your way to visit… but not a terrible place to be stranded, either. |
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